


Drabble request #3

by Crowned_Ladybug



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: AU, Angst, Character Death, Gen, I rarely write pure angst but when I do I go all out, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Tumblr Prompt, don't read if you don't wanna get your heart broken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 04:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12291030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowned_Ladybug/pseuds/Crowned_Ladybug
Summary: "We need to hide."Requested by anonymous on Tumblr, specifically asked for it to be extra angsty.





	Drabble request #3

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry in advance.

They should not have come here.

They should have thought better of it, just this once, just this one night, they should have had better judgement and more caution, but they didn't. They didn't, because they were nothing but starry-eyed teenagers chasing after faraway dreams, staring at the blank sky and pretending they could see stars. They sat and talked, about how there would be better days, about how one day they wpuld get out of here, run away to somewhere together. They said that one day Chase won't have to go home to a family anymore that hurt him instead of loving him and that one day Anti's scars would heal.

They said that it would be okay.

They sat on the grass, lay on their backs, pointed at the sky drawing patterns while they dreamed awake. Their little trio, forged in fire, their little chosen family of three brothers – Chase, his family's punching bag, Anti the outsider and Seán who was just never quite good enough. They dreamed up a better tomorrow together and told it like a fairy tale that they could believe. One day things would be better.

Those days never came.

Their peaceful night is shaken by shouting and the blinding light of torches. They scramble to their feet and run, without a single word knowing to spread out and where to go. They are trespassing, but they have been for the past few months yet they've never been found out before. But that doesn't mean they didn't have a plan for emergencies.

Anti runs as fast as his lanky legs can carry him, weaving through trees and ducking under branches, somehow avoiding tripping every step. He reaches into his pocket to make sure his knife is still there, then picks up his pace again. To his left he sees another figure, keeping up with his pace easily, and when a flash of light comes towards them he recognises him as Seán.

The shouts from behind chase them like hunter dogs chase their prey, but Anti knows they're faster and he believes that they're nothing but misfit teenagers with blind luck on their side. They're ordered to stop again and again, but they don't. They know their way out, they're almost there, and past the fence they're safe.

"Stop! You're surrounded!"

Anti grabs a tree with one hand to take a sharp turn when he realises that the shout wasn't aimed at him and Seán. Chase...where is Chase? He skids to a halt in the shadow of an ancient looking sycamore and he can hear heavy panting by his side. He looks left, reaching for the knife in his pocket but relaxes when he only sees Seán.

"Chase?" Seán signs in their own secret language, hitting his forehead in a salute-like movement twice. Anti quickly taps his own shoulder once to say "don't know", then points in the direction where he's heard the shouts from.

They sneak forward together after making sure they aren't being chased anymore. Looking over the crest of the hill they're on they don't have to asks where Chase is again.

He's surrounded, completely and hopelessly. There's ten or twelve men forming a circle around him, torchlight illuminating everything. And in the middle there's Chase, collapsed on the ground and heaving.

"Give up, kid. We've got you now," one of the men orders. "And while you're at it, you can tell us all about your friends."

Chase looks around like a cornered animal, searching for an opening. Anti can see his shoulder tense as he finds a thin gap he thinks he could slip through. Anti can feel Seán's nails digging into his arm as they watch. Chase jumps, lunges into a sprint towards his opening, his last chance at getting out of this. He can make it, he can make it...

Anti knows he can't.

The gunshot is deafening. Chase collapses, his limp body rolling for a few more metres before he stops for good, and his blood paints the grass red. Anti screams, voice breaking, and Seán has to hold him down to keep him from running to Chase and giving himself up in the process.

"Anti, we need to hide," Seán begs, voice barely above a whisper. He needs all his strength to hold Anti back. "Come on, we can't let them find us."

Anti doesn't cooperate. Seán has to drag him away by the waist, and by the time they get to the abandoned building they know is suitable for hiding his arms are scratched bloody from Anti trying to escape his hold. He doesn't start writhing and fighting him for a second.

Seán falls to a sit once they're inside, pulling Anti down with him. He's still struggling, but he's much more weak now. Seán busies himself with holding him back so that he doesn't have to think about what just happened.

"Chase...Chase...we can't...Seán, we can't..." Anti keeps mumbling and sobbing, still pulling against Seán's arms and kicking to get up. "We can't...can't let them take him..."

Seán presses his cheek to the spot between Anti's shoulder blades and he finally lets his tears fall. He won't break down, not yet, but the tears he just couldn't fight anymore. He's too tired and too scared. "I don't think there's anything we can do anymore."

"There...there has to be...has to be a way," Anti lurches forward and Seán tightens his hold on him again, thinking he's trying to run. But Anti just cries, curling in on himself and shaking. "They...they took him...took him from us..."

"Yeah," he lets his arms loosen around Anti's torso now that he's not going to escape, and he tries to ignore the burning from all the scratches Anti had left on his skin.

"We were going to be happy...we were going to get away...and they took him."

Seán buries his face into Anti's back, and as his sobs start Anti's crying gets more violent as well. Anti keeps mumbling, incoherent things about everything that has happened, and he always comes back to stuttering Chase's name as if he just said it enough times he would come back alright.

The two of them are never found somehow. They sit together like that, crying until the sun comes up. Then they stand, helping each other up, because they're brothers. Family.

They agree, in as few words as they can, that they will leave that night. And they do.

Ten years later they come back. They're adults now, more or less, always trying their wings but making their way through day after day, year after year. Seán has a loving girlfriend, a nice house, as stable job and a passion to pursue. Anti travels a lot. He still comes back every time, and his home is still in the same town Seán's is, but every now and again he packs up and leaves for another adventure. Eventually he comes back with a boyfriend, Seán ruffles Anti's hair and jokingly welcomes the guy to the family. That night Seán and Anti stay up over beers and talk about how happy Chase would be if he could be there with them. They cry on each other's shoulder.

Ten years later they come back. They visit Chase's grave together, just the two of them. It's a simple gravestone, nothing but dates and a name written on it, and they swear to get a better one. Chase deserves better. They bring flowers, they tell Chase about how they're both doing and recount old memories. They sit in the grass together, hold each other and cry.

They think about that fateful night when everything changed, when the three of them got torn apart, never to be fixed again. They should not have gone there.


End file.
